Running an agency business is not easy, but it is rewarding.
And it becomes simple if you focus on 4 essential things that drive agency business.
- Sales
- Hiring and Team management
- Client Engagement
- Systems and processes
1/ Sales
Churn is usual for any business. It is also a truth for agency business. Even a good retainer client won’t usually stick for more than 30 months. To ensure you have a growing business, ensure that you are onboarding new clients more often than old clients are leaving you. Of course, give yourself time to settle with a new client before you onboard a new one. This is where systems and processes come into play.
2/ Hiring and team management and development
This is the toughest for most agency owners. This is an acquired skill like all other skills, and most agency founders start with a small agency team and don’t have much experience hiring people. And in the beginning, they are focused on survival and getting new clients, so they don’t find time to hire people. It’s only when they start growing and the team and the founder come under work pressure that they start looking for new people. This is a chicken and egg situation and the more you do better you get at it.
3/ Client engagement and management
It can be summed up in three words: communication and managing expectations. If you nail these two, there will never be a problem managing client relations. On the communication front, always over-communicate while making the boundaries clear. To manage expectations, just share what to expect, what you will do, when, and how and keep reminding clients and resetting expectations as needed.
4/ Systems and processes
This is something you build over time. Start as soon as possible because sound systems and processes save everyone involved time, money, and energy. For example, client and employee onboarding is something that you can build early on. Next up, set up systems for onboarding new clients. Later you can add processes for hiring, biz dev/ sales, operations, content, working with freelancers, and more.
If you are an agency builder, I hope you find this helpful.
Reach out to me if you have any questions.
